Keeping Up With Employment Law Changes

The following is a roundup of key changes to employment law for 2011. It’s vital that business owners and managers are aware of these changes to ensure that they don’t fall foul of them. For some of the new acts like Bribery and the Equality Act for example it’s important that all staff understand their implications.

Equality Act

This came into effect in October 2010 and many employers are still working on getting their staff up to speed with the changes. The Equality Act brings together several pieces of existing legislation with some significant changes and additions. For example, if an employer is undertaking a recruitment or promotion exercise and finds that two candidates are equally capable of doing the job then they can now treat someone more favourably if they have a protected characteristic.

Additional Paternity Leave

Men can now take up to 26 weeks of additional paternity leave if mum has gone back to work.

Default Retirement Age

The default retirment age was abolished on 6 April 2011 so employers can no longer assume that those coming up to 65 will want to leave the organisation and must make arrangments to suit the individual concerned.

Bribery Act

The new bribery act became law in July and there is a new corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery by those working on behalf of the business.

Agency Workers

New legislation will come into effect in October 2011 which will mean that agency workers will need to be treated the same as permanent employees with regard to holidays, pay and other basic employment conditions.

If you’re looking into training for your staff on the above topics we can provide cost effective e-learning and blended learning courses and you can find more information here: Equality, Diversity and Legislation courses